NL: Hi everyone! My name is Natalie Ledwell and this is the Inspiration Show. Today on the show, I have a special guest who is a doctor. He has his own TV show and he has been helping millions of people to be able to take back control of their health, responsibility for their own choices and to really empower them to make the right choices for their health- for themselves and their family. But, before I introduce my special guest today, let me just remind you that if you are watching our show live on Facebook, or if you’re watching it later on our YouTube channel, don’t forget that after the show is over if you click the link below this video you can take my 30 second quiz so we can see what’s holding you back from success. So, please let me in introduce my special guest today, Dr.Partha Nandi. How are you?

Dr. PN: Thank you for inviting me. I really appreciate it.

NL: Thank you. So you have your own show called, “Ask Dr. Nandi”?

Dr.PN: Yes.

NL: You also have a new book that’s come out with the same title, right?

Dr.PN:  That’s right.

NL: That’s right. Now you have millions of viewers across the world. I think your show is shown in 79 different countries around the world. You are an actual doctor yourself, but you’re taking a very liberal approach to medicine and health. So, can you just explain a little bit about your journey as to how you come to this realization and why your message is so powerful?

Dr.PN: Your introduction is amazing because I really feel as if- I’m using an American word- it’s like I came from a “stacked environment”. What I mean by that is that I was born in the country India and many of you are watching, or listening, are familiar with all of the principles that are in India. So some of the things that are “new age”, or “alternative” were really mainstream when I was a child. I was born in India and I came to the United States at age 9. We learned how to meditate. We learned how to pray every day. We learned about spirituality at a very young age. So I feel like I had a great background and a couple of events in my life that really shaped me. At that time I didn’t understand it, but the first one is when I was 6 years old. I was just like any other rambunctious young boy driving my mom and dad nuts and never stopping. Until one day, I started having a little bit of joint pain and started just not wanting to do anything- not eating, not having any activities. The only thing I liked - and for American audiences they won’t know what this is- I just loved listening to cricket. That’s the only thing I wanted to do. India, Australia- and have a little radio in my bed at 3:00 a.m. and my mom would catch me. But,  that’s all I wanted to do. So my mom and dad, they went to multiple doctors. I was even literally covered in garlic for an entire day, covered in mustard on one day, because they were so desperate to find answers. As you know, a parent, when the child is ill, they’ll do anything. So finally we went to a pediatrician on Christmas Eve when I was 6 years old. He took a look, and examined, and he said, “You have to be admitted that day”. I was frankly surprised because I was just seeing other doctors that didn’t know, or couldn’t tell, what was going on. He knew right away and he admitted me to the hospital. I was there for two weeks and, at that time, he said I had rheumatic fever. Nearly six more months I probably would have lost my life. And that journey… Getting that help really shaped my vision into going into medicine. My mom had told me stories about my grandpa, but that really was fundamental time that I learned about medicine. In fact, I became a physician, practice medicine for several years now. About nine years ago, my dad had a debilitating stroke. He was just had no problem at all. He’d never been in a hospital and all of a sudden he couldn’t do anything. I became, along with my family, a caregiver. I stayed in the hospital with him every day, every doctor’s appointment, and every physical therapy. I stayed with him by his side and what I learned was..  I thought I did a good job as a physician. I learned that there was so much more that I did not know from the patient’s perspective. That’s when we started a movement called The Healthy Love Movement. I said, “We have to be able to teach people what I know with my father that I didn’t know”. We started a movement; we started locally, built it up and we started a television show with the producer from California. With one station in Detroit and now we’re 95 million in the United States, and over 200 million homes in the world. It’s not so much to talk about the achievement, but rather this message is empowering because people just like me are faced with challenges. Furthermore, with this book, you see the title was “Ask Dr. Nandi: Five Steps to Becoming Your Own Health Hero for Longevity, Well-Being and a Joyful life”. What that means is paying your health forward, not always when there’s a crisis. When there’s a crisis, all of us are really energized. But, what happens before the crisis? That’s what I’m focused on. How do we also-  Of course, you want to treat illness, but you also want to try to understand people before they have the symptoms, when they’re in good health. That’s the challenge that I really want to take on to make worldwide health heroes.

NL: Yeah. Absolutely. And that’s the thing. I mean, for us to create the wealth we want, or to be happy in our relationships, or to have the amazing family relationships that we want, health is the foundation to all of that. Because if we’re feeling crappy  and if we’re feeling lethargic, we don’t have the energy. We don’t have the motivation, or the inspiration, to be able to do anything else in our life. So when we talk about the five steps, are you talking about- I know we’re talking about preventative measures- but are you incorporating some of the Indian heritage and the things that you learned growing up in there as well?

Dr.PN:  So, Natalie, absolutely. It’s preventative, but it’s also therapeutic. It’s also for people who are going through medical illnesses. So the five steps, or five pillars, I talked about involve purpose. So if you have a purposeful life, that’s the first to me- one of the most important steps. When you have a purposeful life, like we talked about, you can achieve just about anything. We move on to having a mindful eating habit. Healthy eating habits… Not a diet. I don’t like the word diet. I think that’s synonymous with failure, but mindful eating. Purposeful movement- not this go-to- the gym and lifting- a- heavy- weight, dropping and watching people watch you as we have big muscles. That’s not purposeful movement. Then, moving onto cultivating the mind. How can we then…  I can see- behind you, I mean what’s represented behind you- that understand that cultivating the mind is so important. Whether you use yoga, whether you use prayer, whether you use mindfulness meditation, heartfulness. If you cultivate your mind, you can become a force to be reckoned with. Finally, using your tribe, as you do in your advice. Using your tribe to galvanize all your forces. When you put these five steps- five pillars-  together, you are a force to be reckoned with in your well-being. Like you said, if you have your health you can achieve just about anything. But if you don’t have your health, and if you don’t have wellness, you’re struggling everyday just to be- just to survive.

NL: Yeah. So let’s go back to mindfulness eating. I’ve shared an experience last week. I’m a member of the Transformational Leaders Council and we meet twice a year. We had our last meeting at Miraval, which is like a health resort in Arizona. They have a no cellphone policy-  definitely in the dining room, but not around the property either. One of the first things we were told is how to eat mindfully, how to be conscious about what it is that we’re eating, and actually enjoy the process of doing that. So what are your hints on how- well, someone who’s watching the show right now- can switch from watching their technology every time they’re at the dinner table to actually eating in a mindful way?

Dr.PN: I think that’s a great question because it’s not an easy process. What you have to do is take small steps. We- in the book I talk about small steps leading to huge results. So, the first step is acknowledging, in your tribe, “Listen. We’re going to make a commitment to say that the smartphone, or the technology, is not going to be our focus. We will make our focus ourselves and, if we make our focus ourselves, then the food around us will just serve as a conduit, as a way for us to get together. Can we have an agreement”? It doesn’t always happen that quickly, especially- I have a 14-year-old daughter. What that means is that that is synonymous with a cell phone. She loves that; she loves the technology. But, you have to come and explain what the values are, right? For the- I have a three year old, a five year old, the 14 year old and my wife, and we come together every day at the dinner table. For us, the dinner table is our catharsis. I know what’s going on with them; I can understand their trials and tribulations, as they can mine. We do highs and lows in our table. So, before we do the highs and lows, I say- you know- I, we cannot be distracted by the phone, or any other technology. No iPads, no nothing. You put them away. We put them aside and then we concentrate on each other. The commitment has to be there, meaning I just want you to give me five minutes where we don’t do that and start with five minutes. I tell my patience when I see them in my practice- in my full-time practice- I say, “Can you give me five minutes in all of the pillars every day? If you can give five minutes, it will change your life”. This is no different. Then once we understand that, we have a commitment, then we can go through the processes of, first of all, enjoying our company. Secondly, looking at the food and actually enjoying it. What does this food smell like? What does it look like? Do we know what it feels like going through the mouth? It’s not so important that you go through and analyze every one of the steps, but rather you’re even acknowledging the food, instead of just wolfing it down like so many of us do. You’re watching the football match, or you’re watching whatever it is- baseball-, you’re just shoving things in your mouth. That is the vain of our existence. I mean, if we can just do that one step, it’ll change us. Imagine if you could do all of the steps, these five pillars, it would change your life.

NL: Yeah. No, I agree. Doing one thing at a time, rather than going, “Okay. There’s like 20 things that are amazing that I want to implement here”. Just start with one at a time. I used to get teased from ex-boyfriends and so forth about the way I eat. Because, for me, I’ll put in something in my mouth and have to have one flavor at a time. I’ve put my knife and fork down in between each mouthful and I really enjoyed- like I enjoyed- that flavor. Then once that’s gone and I’m like, “Okay, which flavor am I going to have next”? So I have to work my way around the plate, but one flavor at a time. I used to get teased for that, but I’m thinking now that I must have known about mindful eating before it was even trendy.

Dr.PN: Exactly and you’re smart. By the way, you eat less if you do that. You eat less because the signals go to your brain and you give it time to go to your brain. Normally we don’t. So we just keep going through the process and not even worrying about it.

NL: Absolutely. So the other thing I want to get to is mindful exercise because, for most people, you think exercise means going to the gym, being on the treadmill, maybe running outside. But what’s the difference between that and actually mindful exercise?

Dr.PN: I call it- one of the things… My favorite example is that called “vulture watching”. Have you ever done that exercise, Natalie? Vulture watching. So in my office, where I practice, next to it is a big gym. So I often, when I have a little bit- have a couple of minutes, I watch. I watch the vultures. They’re in their cars circling the parking lot looking for the closest place they can park so they can actually jump out of the car to the door because it’s not time to exercise yet. Don’t ask me to walk through the parking lot because I’ve not entered the gym. I will not move an inch. If in fact someone could carry me from my car into the gym and put me on the treadmill, that’s when I will work out. This is actually really what happened. So people take exercise only when in a compartmentalized fashion. So what I mean by that is, “I only exercise when I’m in the gym”. I’ll only work out when in this arena and the rest of the time I’ll sit on my couch and do nothing else. Purposeful movement is… You take every single opportunity in life to move. We used to be a species that would move all the time, right? We would go out there and hunt, and move, and do everything in a mobile fashion. But now, let’s get in our car, go to our cubicles, sit down, eat lunch sitting down. It just goes on and on. So the idea is that- how can we incorporate movement and joy into our lives? If you’re in a cubicle, stand up five times in an hour. It will change your life. The big muscles in your legs will push the blood up. Go up the stairs, etc. You incorporate movement into your life. Every study has shown that your life will change, your longevity will increase, your heart rate your blood pressure will decrease only when it’s purposeful movement. Doing these sporadic movements twice a week will help, of course. It’s not bad to do it versus nothing. But, really, longevity increases in multiple populations when you incorporate this into your life. That’s purposeful movement. You’re gardening, you’re doing something in your house, or you’re cleaning the doors, you’re cleaning the windows. I have my kids to do chores because I want them to move. I don’t want them sitting around and groaning and saying, “I’m bored”. They’re not moving and they’re becoming the epidemic of obesity that’s in our nation.

NL: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, we’ve only got to cover two of the pillars and I know there’s more. Obviously, with the Mind Movies community we talk a lot about mindset and I’m sure that you have some more insightful things to share with us with. But if people wanted to connect with you, and to get their hands on the new book, which I highly recommend that you do if you’re watching this show, where can we send them to do that?

Dr.PN: Absolutely. Thank you for that, Natalie. It’s ASKDR.NANDI.COM and right now it’s /Facebook. So if you go to ASKDRNANDI.COM/Facebook, you’ll be able to get your hands on the book before anybody else does. The book releases in September, but you can get it now and we have a variety of bonuses for those of you who are watching this show with Natalie right now. We have free eBooks. We have an app that you can take your health hero with you, and magazines, and lots of wonderful stuff. So, please, if you go right now - if you’re watching- we’ll be happy to help you get some extra stuff, bonuses, just for getting the book right now.

NL: Wonderful. Now we’ll make sure that we have the banner here, or the link, underneath the video so you can just easily click on that to go straight through to Dr. Nandi’s website. I really encourage you to take the extra time to get your hands on the book and then start to apply the information in it. What we’re talking about here is going from a life of struggle, where we feel like we’re just walking through wet concrete, to actually living a life where we feel like we have energy, and where we have motivation, and where we really feel like we’re in this happy, joyful place because we’re looking after our bodies. Even though, yes, it is meat suit that’s carrying our spirit and our soul around, we really need to look after it. So I know that you’ll find the answers in Dr. Nandi’s book. Thanks again for joining me today. It’s been a pleasure talking to you.

Dr.PN: It’s amazing. I can talk to you for hours, Natalie. Thank you.

NL: Wonderful! So guys I encourage you to share this video. You can do that by clicking the Facebook and the Twitter share buttons on this page. Click on the link, or the banner to go to Dr. Nandi’s site, and don’t forget that now that once the show is over, click that link below the video so that you can take my 30-second quiz so we can figure out what’s holding you back from success. So, until next time. Remember to live large, choose courageously and love without limits. We’ll see you soon.